April 29, 2011

Recently, while catching up on some interesting flicks, one film of note I'd seen several times before, was the comedic-horror flick, Teeth. A seemingly feminist manifesto of sorts (written and directed by a man, no less) about a young virgin named Dawn with a mean case of Vagina dentata, whose delicates snap, bite, and dismember any man trying to violate its orifice without her consent, including a male gynecologist who tries to molest her upon learning it's Dawn's first experience being examined. I started imagining the power every woman would have if her vagina were able to reject unwanted penis forced upon her during an attack or wayward penis that played games and whispered sweet nothings and lies ... Interesting concept when told from the perspective of the movie.

I did a little research on Vagina Dentata
and found its folkloric origins intriguing. It's apparently every man's
fear of sex... that a woman's toothed parts will castrate and eat his
throbbing member during intercourse. I'd be willing to wager the fear is
derived from the age-old masculine dread (and misunderstanding) of the
vagina. The many myths that involve women always seem to revolve around
the mysteries (and in many cases, evil) of her vagina. Psychologist and
Carl Jung alum, Erich Nuemann relays one myth in which a fish (major side-eye over it being a fish)
inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother archetype (a Jungian
theory)- who is saved by a male hero who eventually overcomes her...
breaking the teeth out of her punany, causing her to become a "real"
woman. Chinese myths also dictate that a woman's vagina is not only the
passageway to immortality... but "executioners of men." Another Muslim
adage says: "Three things are insatiable: The desert, the grave, and a woman's vulva."

In any event, female genitalia is the most intriguing, hated, loved,
studied, desired, feared trope and idiom of any part of a woman's
anatomy next to her breasts and perhaps large posterior. It's the one
part of a woman's body a man can't even begin to truly understand or
inhabit, despite grunting and panting over top or underneath her with
every painstaking thrust or exploration of the tongue. Therein lies the
speculation that breeds suck folklore, perhaps? In the same breath, many
women don't even completely understand the intricacies and power of her
womanhood either, most of us don’t even like touch ourselves let alone
utter the word VAGINA in and of itself and so have resorted to calling
it a vajayjay or some other equivalent name. Interesting and compelling
thought...